Naive as I'd always been, busy throwing everything I had into the Ivy Honors Program, I still hadn't paid it any mind.
I'd even thought he was being considerate toward me.
It wasn't until today, filling out the study-abroad application form, that I finally understood.
Somewhere along the way, without my noticing, his every thought, his every glance, had become only Kathleen.
"Dad, he likes Kathleen, and he wants to call off our engagement."
When he realized it was all a misunderstanding, my father gave me a long, searching look.
"Trudy, if Elliot really likes Kathleen more now, would you truly be willing to step aside and let them be?"
"Yes!"
I nodded without a second's hesitation.
Kathleen might have been our adopted sister, but ever since she came to our family at eight years old, I'd always treated her like my own blood.
To me, family meant more than any man.
I didn't want the two of us turning on each other over some boy.
And I didn't want a childhood bond, the one we'd grown up with, to end in something ugly.
My father took me to the Delgado home.
The moment Kathleen saw me and my father, she turned and went straight to the kitchen to make tea.
She slid open the cabinet with practiced ease, pulled out the cups and the tea leaves. One look told you this wasn't her first time here.
For some reason, I read it in the way she moved, like she was staking her claim as the lady of the house.
I pushed the thought down and spoke to Elliot plainly, of my own accord.
"If you like Kathleen, you can just say so to my face. There's no need to go in circles, pulling tricks to make me back out. After all, I scored a perfect SAT—"
The Ivy League was the better choice for me.
The roar of a car engine outside swallowed that last sentence whole.
"Elliot, come out and help carry the luggage!"
It was Elliot's parents, back from their trip.
He and my father stood and went out to greet them.
I got up to go too, but Kathleen blocked me with the tea tray in her hands.
"Sis, I shouldn't have thrown a fit and gotten difficult earlier. Don't hold it against me, okay?"
I looked at the scalding tea, steam still curling off it, and had no intention of taking it.
But Kathleen insisted on pressing it into my hands.
I only stepped back, just one step, and she went stumbling backward too.
A whole cup of boiling tea spilled across the back of her hand.
"Ah!"
"Sis, why did you push me?"
When Elliot and my father came in carrying the suitcases, this was the scene they walked into.
Elliot dropped the luggage on the spot and rushed in, his eyes gone red.
He cradled the reddened back of Kathleen's hand with such care, his voice trembling.
"Kathleen, does it hurt? I'll take you to the hospital!"
Kathleen spoke up for me through her tears.
"It's fine, it doesn't hurt. I didn't hold it steady myself... it's not Sis's fault..."
Elliot's face went dark as he shouted at me.
"Trudy! Will this ever end? Why would you push her on purpose?"
"I didn't!"
The denial came out of me on instinct.
But he didn't believe it.
He only looked at me, deeply disappointed.
"Kathleen's the one who can't stand pain. How could she possibly pour tea that hot all over her own hand?"
"And besides, your father and I both heard her apologize to you with our own ears, and saw you push her with our own eyes!"
I turned to my father, at a loss, only to find his face even darker than Elliot's.
Clearly, he too believed he hadn't seen wrong.
Kathleen cried harder, but in the eyes she fixed on me there was, beneath the fear, a flicker of triumph.
It was only in that moment that I knew for certain. Elliot's sudden turn against me, all of it, was Kathleen's doing!
I pointed at the security camera and said flatly,
"Then check the footage and see whether I pushed her or not!"
But Elliot let out a scornful laugh.
"Kathleen's hurt this badly and you still have it in you to go checking cameras? If you ask me, you're just stalling on purpose, dragging it out so she suffers, so she ends up sick worse than last time!"
My father froze.
"What last time?"
